I love new beginnings, and I enjoy making lists and goal-setting. Somehow, deciding on specific goals and writing them down makes me feel less stressed and more in control of my life. So for the first time, I'm posting my family's financial goals for the year to share with you all. I know that sharing them will motivate me even further!
Family Financial Goals:
Rebuild our Emergency Fund to 3 Months of Living Expenses (main goal) - This was our main goal last year as well. We weren't sure we could manage it, but we unexpectedly were able to do it a couple of months before the end of the year! However, the opportunity arose to buy our van, and we made the decision to use part of our savings to accomplish that goal. We still have some savings, but it is a priority for our piece of mind to try to get back to 3 months of expenses as soon as possible.
Continue to Pay for Dental Work for my Husband (lesser main goal) - My husband has needed a fairly extensive amount of dental work over the past few months, and he still has a little more to get done. He also actually needs braces, although we are not sure if we will be able to get that done at this time. For now, we have set aside a little extra money in our FSA account to pay for the rest of his immediate dental work, and possibly to start on the braces in the latter part of the year.
Redo our Daughter's Bedroom (minor goal) - This is not as expensive as it sounds. Basically, we plan to buy a set of Ikea's toddler bunk beds, and sometime in the next year move our daughters in together. We may also purchase a few storage items, but we won't need much else.
I also have set some "frugal goals" for myself. These are plans I have to reduce our spending further and help us to accomplish our larger financial goals. My personal "frugal goals" for the year include:
Permanently Reducing our Grocery Budget to $300/month - I experimented with this goal in the last few months of 2009 and was pretty successful. However, holidays and parties would still easily send me back to at least $350/month. I would like to reduce my spending enough so that $300 is comfortable and even enables me to save a little for those types of extras.
Further Reduce Our Use of Disposable Products - This past fall I switched to cloth diapers, which I now use about 70%-80% of the time. I plan to continue this, as well as to purchase a few more diaper accessories that I need, and hopefully get to point where I am comfortable enough to save disposable only for occasions like road trips. I also have recently been working on reducing our paper towel usage, and I hope to reduce it even further. And next after those to tackle? Ziploc bag usage!
Improve Our Garden and Make it Profitable - Our garden this year was a great experience and an investment for future years, but it didn't actually save us money. In 2010, I hope to harvest more, preserve more, and spend little enough that we actually save money, in addition to the other great benefits that our garden provides us.
We'd all love to be inspired by your financial and "frugal" goals for the year. Please share in the comments section!
Re-Do of daughter's bedroom - some thoughts:
ReplyDeleteas I am not sure what your definition of re-do (the older I get the less I seem to understand the language - someone else's definitions are not always the same as mine) ... anyway ... some possible considerations (based on observations and personal experience).
Think about the long range expense - if there is a $$ outlay for the toddler bunk bed, there will eventually have to be a $$ outlay for a bigger bed(s). Is there a better (more economical) use of your money?
Here are two ideas - if you plan to have the girls in regular size bunk beds when they get older: (1) for the older daughter, buy her a regular sized twin mattress, lay it on the floor; this allows her to get used to the perimeters of the mattress, plus it is close enough to the ground that rolling off is not going to be harmful. In the meantime, you can save enough money to buy a good quality bed (although a quality bed does not have to be expensive). (2) My two oldest girls were 13-1/2 months apart; we did not buy a full sized crib for #1 until #2 was born (#1 slept in a porta-crib). When #2 was about to out-grow the porta-crib (we kept her til past her first birthday because we were traveling for a 6 month period) and ready to transfer to the full size crib, it was time to buy a bed for #1. We found an old twin brass bed for #1 - it cost the same as new twin sized bed at Sears, and much sturdier (her daughter, now 2 yrs, will eventually use this bed). We eventually bought all three of our daughters twin brass bed - they did not cost much more than a new bed - and they are now in use by grand-daughters - in use for nearly 40 years (currently a pro-rated cost of a little over $2 per year). BTW - the bunk-bed we bought for our sons in the late 1970's is now used by one of our grandson's. It is a well-built bed - very sturdy; a case where quality has saved money in the long run.
Anon, thanks for the thoughts! Often at this point in our lives we tend to buy cheaper furniture (Ikea!), but I know that like you, my parents tended to save for high-quality furniture. And as for you, it has lasted them many, many years.
ReplyDeleteI recently bought the IKEA bunk beds that are unfinished pine wood and were 159 dollars. My 8 and 6 year old sleep in it. They are very nice LOW bunk beds, which would also work as a "toddler" bunk bed set. I can't remember the name of them but you should be able to see them on the IKEA site.
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